


In a Heartbeat

by HaveAGoodeDay



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Asexual Abby Yates, F/F, Fluff, I wrote this overnight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-03
Updated: 2017-08-03
Packaged: 2018-12-10 16:17:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11695323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HaveAGoodeDay/pseuds/HaveAGoodeDay
Summary: “What’s a heartbeat?”Jillian’s red crayon scribbles wildly as the question leaves her mouth, barely looking up from the drawing to glance at her mother cutting carrots at the kitchen counter. The woman has a floral apron on, with flour on it already. The flour reaches up to, toward the pale blonde messy bun on Mrs. Holtzmann’s head.“It’s how you find your soulmate.”..The 'In a Heartbeat' Alternative Universe nobody asked for.





	In a Heartbeat

**Author's Note:**

> First, I love the short animated film this is based off called In a Heartbeat. It's adorable, and I had to write this. Secondly, I apologize for any typos, I wrote this very late last night with X-Files playing.

“What’s a heartbeat?”

  
Jillian’s red crayon scribbles wildly as the question leaves her mouth, barely looking up from the drawing to glance at her mother cutting carrots at the kitchen counter. The woman has a floral apron on, with flour on it already. The flour reaches up to, toward the pale blonde messy bun on Mrs. Holtzmann’s head.

  
“It’s how you find your soulmate.” Her mother puts down the very sharp knife, smiles at her lovingly as she steps over to take a seat next to the child at the table, “That’s how I found your daddy, you know.”

  
“Is it really your heart?” Jillian’s teetering on the edge of eight years old, full of questions about science and technology and now this, mind running wild with the possibly. She’s smart though, and frowns deeply when she realizes, “It can’t be, you’d die if it left.”

  
“It’s an aura,” The woman brushes her daughter’s slightly darker hair back, eyes on the drawing on the construction paper below. A giant heart, messily filled in and three small suns doodled almost absent mindedly. “that’s why we draw hearts like this-“

  
Mrs. Holtzmann points to the drawing at that, then to her daughter’s chest where her heart beats a steady rhythm, “and not like these.”

  
“Oh.” Jillian’s frown only gets more confused, dimples showing as she asks, “Does it hurt?”

  
Her mom smiles, “No. It feels like someone’s giving you a really, really big bear hug.”

  
“Like grandpa?” Jillian giggles.

  
Her reply is whispered almost conspiratorially, “Just like grandpa.”

  
__________

  
Jillian is in high school, senior year, when her best friend actually gets her heartbeat.

  
“It’s amazing.” Emily nearly sighs out the words, sitting together at the lunch table with their matching peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. “It feels like it’s pulling me to him.”

  
Him being star school running back, Brock Quigley. Tall, dark and boasting a full athletic scholarship to UCLA. The pink energy swirling around her friend floats off, swirling toward Brock before coming back.

  
“I knew when we started dating.” Her best friend affirms, waves to her boyfriend as her does the same back.

  
Jillian finds herself looking away, because she doesn’t really like the idea of them getting married and having perfect little babies.

  
Because Emily is pretty. With black hair that has a natural wave, and she dresses in a cheerleader uniform every other day. Her nose is straight and her jaw is all sharp angles, like a Victoria Secret model.

  
_Yeah_ , Jillian much rather prefers the day dream of Emily with someone else. Someone that’s not Brock, and is actually getting a full scholarship on her brains and not brawn.

  
But that’s a revelation for another day.

  
___________

  
College is everything she expects and _more_.

  
More being a sudden and overwhelming realization of girls. Short girls like her, girls taller than her by a foot. Chubby girls and skinny girls and girls who are majoring art and biology and everything in between.   
High school might have been a hint, but college is the revelation.

  
Jillian asks around, the scary question of if that kind of soul mate exists. She bites her nails down and starts messing up her work. She’s at MIT now, working toward a PHD in nuclear engineering.

  
The final answer comes in her mentor, Rebecca Gorin, who comes in wearing a ring one day to class and only the bravest and her best student actually asks about it.

  
“I must of forgotten to take it off before coming into the lab.” Gorin deadpans, always a sort of distance from any sort of emotion in her voice. “She’d have my head if I melted it.”  
She.

  
The pronoun drags across Holtzmann’s brain like a rake across hot coals all week, until her courage builds and the blonde takes a deep breath and simply asks,

  
“Are you married to a woman?”

  
Gorin blinks, unsurprised, “I’m married to my soul mate, who is in fact a woman.”

  
“I didn’t…” Holtz actually is speechless, a rare occasion, and it makes Gorin crack a smile.

  
“It is possible, Jillian. I know you’ve been thinking over this.”

  
“How did you know?” The student pulls up her yellow work goggles, blue eyes wide and the slight outline of ash reminding of the skin untouched thanks to the eyewear.

  
“You used a cheap face paint last June,” Gorin explains, “You could see the faded rainbows on your cheeks for three days after the parade.”

  
“Uh,” Holtzmann stares a bit taken back, not expecting this situation and settling on a simple, “Thanks. For everything.”

  
“Get back to work, Jillian.”

  
She does.

__________

  
Abby doesn’t really get things like heart beats, or the romance thing in general. It’s great working with her, her boss has sass and can drag a men to hell and back with only the information she learns about him after a five minute conversation.   
She’s also really smart.

  
Smart enough to draft up the mathematical plans for Holtzmann’s builds, smart enough to understand the blonde when she goes off on engineering rambles. Abby becomes such a better friend than Emily ever was, and Holtz actually thinks this must be what having a sister is like, with less fighting of course.

  
Then Erin bursts in that lab door, a ball of angry long limbs and the nerdiest outfit Holtzmann has ever seen. Erin Gilbert, who comes into their lives and turns it upside down and right side again. Right side up on the other side with a lovely woman named Patty watching their backs, and a three story firehouse instead of a basement lab.

  
Sure, if you asked Jillian, Erin might have been the best thing that happened to her and Abby and Patty. But their all family now, a tight knit group and even Kevin is treated like a brother, so it’s unspoken.

  
There’s a lot of unspoken things. Like how all Holtz has to do is look a little distressed about her current project and Patty will offer piggy back rides and a promised movie night. Or how Abby always brings in their favorite Chinese food on Fridays. Or how Kevin’s painting his room. Holtzmann is pretty sure he’s not suppose to do that.

  
There’s also the thing that the resident engineer might have a itty bitty ( _it’s not itty nor is it bitty_ ) crush on their brilliant particle physicist. But Holtzmann ignores that last one. Hopes everyone doesn’t even notice the stares.

  
Erin is straight.

  
Holtzmann is _not_.

  
It just can’t work out. But she flirts, for fun, to ease the pressure off her chest and get through it. A embarrassed Erin blushing wildly is better than none at all, it gets her through.

  
Apparently, her heart doesn’t agree.

  
It really doesn’t hurt, is the thing her mind settles on when she wakes to the warmth resting against her chest. Still stuck in a place of sleep, her lips turn up in a smile at the feeling. Her dream fades into the dark, but not before she remembers bits and pieces.

  
_Red hair, freckles, awkward dance moves_.

  
Oh no.

  
Holtzmann bolts to sit straight up in her bed, eyes widening to an almost manic point, trained on the heart-shaped pink ball of energy bouncing almost playfully on her lap.

  
“Shit!” The blonde growls, the real one in her chest thumping with nerves as her hand shoots out and actually grabs the heart, it almost makes a sound like a squeak, surprised.

  
Then it pulls.

  
She’s dressed in a tee and boxer shorts, lacking a bra and most of the pins in her hair. The sheer amount of hairspray keeps her style up, except a few wild strands hanging loose. The sheets come with her as the energy pulls her clear off the bed, it’s dragging her toward the door.

  
“No!” She tries to scold as quietly as possible, not wanting to wake everyone else in the firehouse. “You can’t just go-“

  
Her hand loses it’s grip on it, the heart bouncing into the door two times, enough for Holtzmann to almost reach it, before swooping down and squeezing under the door. The woman dives for it, grabbing thin air at the last moment.

  
Her hands tremble as she turns the knob and steps into the hall, looking up and down before spotting the little thing to her left. In the dim light of street lights, Holtz can see it rubbing it’s form against a door.   
Erin’s door.

  
Her bare feet make a little noise as she darts down the space, mumbled curses coming out from under her breath. The energy sees her though, and squeaks indignantly as she pulls it away from the door. Just as it opens.

  
“Holtz?”

  
Erin’s voice is sleepy, doused with the rasp of it. The first thing the blonde does is shove her hands behind her back and hide her heartbeat, and the second is notice Erin sleeps in matching duck patterned flannel pajamas.

  
The energy in her hands grows.

  
The older woman’s hair is tangled slightly, a bit of drool dried on her chin, and a very confused look to her darker blue eyes. “Uh, hi.” Holtzmann greets, shifting on her feet.

  
“It’s three in the morning.” Erin states, “Did we get a call?”

  
“Nope!” Holtz hurries, feeling her heartbeat jump at Erin’s voice. “Nothing’s wrong just was wondering if you had… a paperclip!”

  
_Smooth_ , Holtzmann, _really_ _smooth_.

  
She didn’t really think through how stupid that sounds, but it makes Erin look down to the desk by her doorframe and locate the silver office supplies. Jillian’s heartbeat goes wild again, reacting to the kindness Erin shows. No questioning the quirky woman, just helping.

  
It gets away.

  
The little energy ball zooms forward and hovers behind Erin, almost comical in the way in happily bounces there. Holtzmann’s palms sweat profusely. This isn’t good.   
Erin hands over the clips, actually smiles at Holtz this early and wishes, “What ever those are for, try not to hurt yourself too much.”

  
The heartbeat picks then, when their hands brush against each other’s in the exchange, to float over Erin’s shoulder and glow brightly between their parting fingertips.

  
“Oh.” Is what Erin first says, Holtzmann stares at it like a sick animal. Pitiful, guilty, and an overwhelming pain taking over her features.

  
“I didn’t mean to.” Is what the blonde mumbles, when she finds it in herself to speak. Like it can be controlled. Maybe she could of.

  
Erin doesn’t really react, just takes Holtzmann’s hand and pulls her forward into her room. The heartbeat follows, the elephant in the room. The redhead gestures for Holtz to take a seat on the bed, and she does.

  
Then she opens her top drawer, not far away at all, and the pink glow is visible as soon as it cracks open. Then Erin reaches in, and lifts out a large jar, like one would use for firefly catching.

  
But the glowing inside is not a bug, but instead a pulsing energy similar to her own. Same color, size, and shape.   
“Erin?”

  
“The night after the mansion.” Erin admits a bit sheepishly. Like that’s embarrassing to her. “I didn’t know if you returned those feelings so…”

  
“You literally bottled them up.” Holtzmann’s reply trails off in a small laugh, watching the energy bounce around in the jar, trying to get out.

  
Her own heartbeat keeps itself between them, even when the sit so close together on the edge of the bed. Erin has to bat the little thing out of the way as she sits with the jar in her lap. Her voice is low as she says, “If I let this out, what does that mean for us?”

  
Holtzmann blanks for a moment but sums up, “We’re soulmates?”

  
“A lot of people say they can tell even before the heartbeats,” In the dark Erin reaches up and starts to unscrew the lid, “I think I did too. When I first say you.”

  
“So you’re ok with this?” The blonde asks, too be sure. Too let her start dreaming of something more. 

The lid falls to the floor, spinning to a stop as Erin’s heartbeat jumps out to nuzzle against Holtzmann’s stomach.

  
“More than ok.”

Erin takes her hand, brushes her thumb over the other woman’s palm, and it’s like a promise when she says, “I think I’m ready to love you.”

It breaks the barrier, enough for Holtz to brightly smile and pull the woman in a crushing hug as she admits,  
  


"I think I already do."

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please review if you liked it. Or if you didn't. Whatever your thoughts are.


End file.
